Pointing a Domain to Your Go Red Robot Hosting

Pointing your domain at your hosting

Your website and email only work once your domain points at the server your hosting lives on. This guide explains the two ways to do that, how long it takes, and what to check before you go looking for other problems.

Use the details we gave you

When your hosting account is set up, we send you the details your domain needs: either our nameservers, or the specific DNS records to add. Use those exact details. Different hosting servers use different addresses, so copy them from your account information rather than from a guide online.

If your domain is registered with us, we normally set this up for you. You can check or change your nameservers in the customer portal — see Managing Your Domains.

Nameservers or individual records — what is the difference?

• Changing nameservers hands the whole domain over to us. Your website, email and any other records are then answered by our DNS. This is the simplest option and the one we recommend for most people.
• Changing individual DNS records keeps your DNS where it is (for example with your registrar or another provider) and only points specific records at us — usually the website records, and the mail records if your email is with us too. Use this if other services on the domain must stay where they are.

Do one or the other, not a mixture. If you change nameservers, records you add at your old DNS provider stop being used.

Allow time for the change to spread

DNS changes are not instant. Most take effect within a few hours, but some networks hold on to the old answer for up to 48 hours. During that time some visitors may see the old site and others the new one — that is normal and it settles on its own.

Check the domain points correctly before troubleshooting anything else

A domain that is not pointing at us yet causes problems that look like something else:

• Your free SSL certificate cannot be issued, so the site shows a security warning.
• Email does not arrive in your new mailboxes.
• Changes you make to the website do not appear.

So check the DNS first. A public DNS lookup tool will show which nameservers and addresses your domain currently returns — compare them with the details we gave you.

Domain registered somewhere else?

If your domain is registered with another company and you are not sure where to make these changes, contact us or open a support ticket. Tell us the domain name and where it is registered, and we will tell you exactly what to change.